Richard L. Hernandez

Associate Professor
Ph.D., Stanford University

Office: Brewster A-318

Phone: 252-328-6556

Richard Hernandez studies the history of twentieth-century Russia with particular emphasis on its cultural and social aspects. He is currently preparing a manuscript for publication titled “Political Religion and Religious Politics: Radical Modernity, Traditional Culture, and the Building of Socialism in Rural Russia.” By revealing the essential religious contours of rural politics during the early Stalin years, his study challenges accounts of modernity that take the rubric of secularization for granted. He demonstrates that traditional religious adherence uniquely enabled villagers to contend with Soviet modernity even while the dreams and deeds of Bolshevik activists in the field were supported by the regime’s own pseudo-religious symbols and mythologies.

Before coming to East Carolina in 2006, Dr. Hernandez taught at the University of San Francisco and Santa Clara University and worked as a campus minister at Stanford. He is the recipient of several grants and fellowships including from the Mellon Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the ACTR / USIA Regional Scholar Exchange Program.

Selected Publications:

“Good Shepherds: The Public Authority of Parish Clergy in the Era of Collectivization.” Russian History / Histoire Russe 32 (2005): 195-214.

“Sacred Sound and Sacred Substance: Church Bells and the Auditory Culture of the Russian Village during the Bolshevik ‘Velikii Perelom.’” The American Historical Review 109 (2004): 1475-1504.

“The Confessions of Semën Kanatchikov: A Bolshevik Memoir as Spiritual Autobiography.” The Russian Review 60 (2001): 13-35.

Courses Offered:

HIST 1030: World Civilizations to 1500

HIST 1031: World Civilizations since 1500

HIST 2000: Introduction to History

RUSI 2202: Introduction to Russian Studies: Social Science

HIST 3412: History of Christianity before 1300

HIST 3551: Medieval Russia, 862-1682

HIST 3552: Imperial Russia, 1682-1917

HIST 3553: Soviet Russia, 1917-1991

HIST 5470: History of Soviet Russia since 1917

HIST 6375: Twentieth-Century European History